The Young Hearts are the best Gaslight Anthem sounding band after, well, Gaslight Anthem themselves, but this EP for me has grown from the last and second album, Somewhere Through The Night.  It takes that mantle and drives it further than it’s been before, a UK band showing the world how to put lyrics to music and blend them as if they were never meant to be separate.

From the first few bars of the opening and title track your aware of the influences of the American greats, Springsteen himself would be proud of the story telling lyrics, you can feel the the small town life and the growing up within it right there in your ears and mind. Capturing the moments that make you who you are, the emotions that shape a young person growing up in a place far removed from the cities and metropolises. ‘Outlaws’ for example has this almost Celtic rock starter to it, but then you can just imagine living in Deal on the Kent coast giving you a just as out there feeling, this song could have been a Pete n Diesel yarn if given a different overcoat. 

What I personally like about this EP, is how it drives along like its a book, the songs are chapters in the character life, once one song finishes you just want to get on to the next to see what might happen next.  ‘Steady Hands’ tells of a realisation that being in a band is not about looking too far ahead, the dream, if it comes, should not be the end game, nor should it be the only thing to drive you to make music. ‘Hell or High Water’ then takes you by the hand as it lifts you to the sky and just a quickly drops you off a cliff, and emotional monster of a song. Ending the EP is a deep breathe of a song, a reflection on ‘where are we now, where have we been, and where are we going’, ‘A Life On Fire’ are the exact words I would use to sum up this EP, the life of the band laid bare and yet its sets a fire under their future that should, if not will, burn even brighter for them.  Here’s to Vol 2!

This is Sadly and a sign of the times, a self released album that deserves your/our support, if record labels can’t get behind this, what chance have any of us got..

The Good, The Bad & The Rest of Us, Vol. 1 is due out 12th of June

Find all the links you need to support this great band HERE

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